Student Blog
Fieldwork

All Work and No Play? No Way! ⟩
September 27, 2013, by Clarissa

Fieldwork

I have two midterms and my fine motor toolkit for the pediatrics immersion due next week, so this week has been madness with studying, various extracurriculars, and fieldwork. I enjoy everything I do, though, which at least makes it merry madness.

I’m having a great time at my Level I pediatric fieldwork site. I am currently placed in a school-based setting and see children in various elementary schools throughout the day, as well as in clinic. This week, my clinical instructor reviewed my ideas for my fine motor toolkit and I was mind-blown by how creative pediatric occupational therapists can get with simple, everyday objects. Am I going to become that creative?

It also definitely helps relieve midterm stress when fun is incorporated into our curriculum! Since play is a major occupation for children, we do activity analyses of play to learn about treatment strategies utilizing play as motivation. For us, this means learning while playing! Whoever said classroom time has to be all work and no play?

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First Day of Fieldwork! ⟩
September 24, 2013, by Ryan

Fieldwork

We started at our Level I Fieldwork sites last week . . . very exciting!!! I have been placed in the area at a hand therapy clinic since I am currently in the Adult Physical Rehabilitation and Disability Immersion. It is a small clinic with two therapists that made my first day quite nice and pleasant. I was able to meet patients recovering from surgeries such as carpal tunnel and trigger thumb or healing from lacerations caused by a power saw or broken glass. I have to admit, I am a little nervous about protecting my hands after that one day. It was interesting to see how each person was impacted from the loss of their hand function.

Since it was my first day and I am still learning (or trying to remember what I have already learned in Kinesiology a year ago . . . or Anatomy and Physiology even before I started the program, yikes!!!), I decided to interact with the patients. I definitely had the time, since I was told by my CI (Clinical Instructor) to just observe that day and with only two therapists in a small space, there really wasn’t much to else to do. I had a great time meeting people! As people were set up (paraffin wax and heating compress for 10 minutes) I would ask people how they started coming to the clinic. Everyone was happy to share their stories and I ended up having a great laugh with a lovely older woman who was very funny and obviously loved life! She had the best outlook on life. My CI was quite knowledgeable and also really great at explaining what she was doing, then asking me about certain conditions I saw. It really kept me on my toes. I think I am going to learn a lot this semester, so make sure you check in to see what fascinating hand conditions I see next!

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Fieldwork Out-of-State? ⟩
September 17, 2013, by Kate

Fieldwork

I have lived in Los Angeles for 11 years now, which is such an amazing feat. I can’t believe that in August of 2002, I drove from Denver, Colorado, to Los Angeles with most of my belongings, ready to start a new adventure. My undergraduate years at USC were the best four years of my life, and in 2006, I decided to stay in the City of Angels. My parents moved to Seattle, Washington, when I graduated from USC in 2006. I have loved visiting them and exploring a new city that is similar to, yet different from, my hometown of Denver.

As I made my way into a new career path and my journey with occupational therapy, I have a new and exciting adventure to begin. USC’s outstanding team of fieldwork coordinators offers over 750 placements across the country, and I’ve decided that I am going to take advantage of these out-of-state opportunities. I just put in a request with our fieldwork team to be placed somewhere in Seattle for my Level II fieldwork next summer! What an exciting (and a little bit scary!) decision! Now it is in the hands of the fieldwork coordinators to place me in a facility where I can use my existing skills to learn and grow even more. What can I say?? I CANNOT WAIT!!!

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Play for Pediatrics ⟩
September 6, 2013, by Jen

Classes Fieldwork What are OS/OT?

Babies, babies, babies! I love how “hands-on” my professors make learning. This semester, nine hours of my school week are dedicated to pediatrics classes and an entire day each week I will be spending doing fieldwork (hands-on experience) in a pediatric clinic. Six of the nine hours of class are spent in a lecture course, with the remaining three hours in lab. This week in lab, our class walked across campus to the USC childcare center to observe infants, toddlers and preschoolers. I spent the majority of my time in the toddler room and those little ones were quite the entertainers. In lecture this week we had been learning about normal vs. abnormal child development, so observing children in their natural environment in lab really helped solidify the content we had been learning. After observing the children, we walked back to class and performed assessments of the children based on our observations. We compared our results and it was exciting to see how accurate we were!

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New Year, New Roles, Same Old Happy OTs! ⟩
September 6, 2013, by Clarissa

Fieldwork Getting Involved

Walking into class last Monday felt like walking into a land of happy, supportive people who I’ve missed so much over summer!  I had a great time trading stories from our 12-week Level II fieldwork and really feeling that empathy from one another for our trials and triumphs. Occupational therapy is such a broad field and it is almost impossible to have hands on learning in all practice settings, so our conversations were fascinating educational experiences as well!

As for my summer experience, I did my Level II at a skilled nursing facility in Northern California where I worked with patients who had various physical disabilities such as spinal cord injury, stroke and orthopedic fractures. I conducted evaluations and engaged patients in treatment sessions in order to improve their participation in meaningful activities. Eventually I was responsible for managing a full caseload, so about seven patients a day, just like a practicing therapist! Talk about time management as a key skill to acquire! I learned a lot from my patients and other therapists but the experience has taught me one thing — there’s still so much for me to learn! That’s one thing I value about OT — it is a dynamic field with constant opportunities for self-improvement. Now that I’ve seen how educational material is applied in practice, I will definitely be learning in school with a new lens.

I’m looking forward to what the new school year will bring! I adore kids and am currently in the Pediatrics Immersion where we’ve started analyzing videos of very cute kids. I’m also enjoying my new position as a Student Ambassador. I love talking about OT to anyone who will listen, so this position is perfect for me. Another new role for me is the care team coordinator position for the Student Run Clinic, which is an interdisciplinary clinic run by USC students from the pharmacy, medicine, physician assistant, and, of course, occupational therapy programs. I’m excited to learn about how OT can grow in primary care and how our professions complement one another.

Until next time, happy back to school, and go USC OT!

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